The purpose of this study is to explore the important factors in the CSR performance of multinational corporations that have entered Korea and the public perception. Specifically, it examines the effects of CSR type and CSR fit of multinational corpor... The purpose of this study is to explore the important factors in the CSR performance of multinational corporations that have entered Korea and the public perception. Specifically, it examines the effects of CSR type and CSR fit of multinational corporations on the public knowledge structure exposed to CSR messages, and the perception of CSR motivation and corporate attitude. In particular, this study approached CSR of multinational corporations as persuasive communication that can form a positive corporate attitude from a strategic point of view, and applied a persuasion knowledge model to examine public perception in this context. We have verified that the knowledge structure of the public due to the CSR message changes according to the type of CSR and the appropriateness of CSR, and that the perception of CSR motivation changes and the attitude of the company is also affected. Also, one of the cultural characteristics of Korea was to investigate the effect of ethnocentrism. Four research hypotheses and four research problems were set up for this purpose. As a result, both CSR type and CSR fit were found to affect public knowledge structure. Specifically, when the CSR of a multinational corporation was local CSR activities, the topic knowledge and agent knowledge of message recipients were high, and Hypothesis 1 was partially supported because there was no difference in persuasion knowledge. When multinational corporations deal with specific local social issues, their belief in the awareness, understanding and importance of local public issues and their professionalism are high. Also, Hypothesis 2 was supported because the higher the perception of the suitability of company and CSR activities, the higher the topic knowledge and agent knowledge and the lower persuasion knowledge. This means that recognition of issues and beliefs of corporate expertise are activated more frequently when the CSR fit recognized by the public is high, and that the perception and manipulation perception of CSR messages are less active. In Hypothesis 3, it was confirmed that the more topic knowledge and agent knowledge is activated, the more CSR motivation is attributed to value-oriented attribution and stakeholder-oriented attribution. On the other hand, public think CSR motivation is strategic attribution when persuasion knowledge is activated. In research question 1, the influence of knowledge structure on CSR motivation was compared. In the value-oriented attribution and strategic attribution, persuasion knowledge had the greatest influence. And agent knowledge has the greatest effect on stakeholder-oriented attribution. In research question 2, it was confirmed that CSR type and ethnocentrism of multinational corporations interact with CSR attribution irrespective of public knowledge structure by persuasive message. Global CSR activities showed a high value-oriented attribution and stakeholder-oriented attribution and low strategic attribution when the propensity toward ethnocentrism was low. In terms of local CSR activities, people tend to attribute more value-oriented attribution and stakeholder-oriented attribution than strategic attribution when ethnocentrism is high. In research question 3, we looked at how corporate attitudes are affected by motivation of CSR activities. When we look at three attributions at the same time, value-oriented attributions have a greater impact than strategic attributions, while stakeholder-oriented attributions have no effect. As for the effect of individual attribution on corporate attitude, the higher the value-oriented attribution and the stakeholder-oriented attribution were, the more positive attitude was appeared. In research question 4, it was found that CSR motivation perception has no mediation effect between topic knowledge and corporate attitude, and partial mediation effect on persuasion knowledge and agent knowledge. Specifically, both persuasion knowledge and agent knowledge were influenced by value-oriented attribution and stakeholder-oriented attribution. In addition, in Hypothesis 4, which tested the moderating effect of ethnocentrism on the effect of each attribution on corporate attitude, it was found that the influence of CSR motivation on corporate attitude was different according to ethnocentrism only for stakeholder-oriented attribution. In this study, we found multinational corporations should consider CSR type and CSR fit in order to make successful CSR activities from a strategic point of view. In addition, the moderating effect of ethnocentrism was significant, and it was found that the cultural characteristics of local people should be considered when establishing CSR strategy. This study has academic implication that we deeply examined the factors that have an important influence on CSR performance and the effects of public awareness and cultural characteristics through the persuasion knowledge model which was not applied well in the CSR. In addition, there are practical implications that multi-national corporations can refer to when planning, implementing, and communicating CSR activities.
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